Zverev starts French Open bid with crushing victory

SECOND seed Alexander Zverev got his French Open title bid off to the perfect start with a 6-1 6-1 6-2 thrashing of Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis yesterday.

The 21-year-old, who arrived at Roland Garros on a hot streak of form after titles in Munich and Madrid before an Italian Open final loss to Rafael Nadal, stormed to victory in only an hour and 10 minutes.

But Latvia’s fifth seed Jelena Ostapenko became only the second defending champion to lose in the first round when she slumped to a shock 7-5 6-3 defeat by Kateryna Kozlova of Ukraine yesterday.

Russia’s Anastasia Myskina was the only other defending champion to lose in the first round in the Open era in 2005.

Zverev lost in the first round last year to Fernando Verdasco, but the German confidently avoided a repeat and enhanced his credentials as a serious threat to Nadal’s hopes of an 11th title.

The world number three did not face a single break point in the match, and broke his 92nd-ranked opponent’s serve seven times in a totally one-sided contest.

Zverev, who has never reached a grand slam quarterfinal, will meet either Czech Jiri Vesely or Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic in the second round.

Fourth seed Grigor Dimitrov reached the second round, even if he was not exactly sure who he was facing, while Venus Williams was defeated and Australian firebrand Nick Kyrgios limped out.

Dimitrov had been drawn to face experienced Viktor Troicki in the tournament opener on Philippe Chatrier Court.

However, just before he was due to go on court, Troicki withdrew with a back injury, allowing Egyptian world number 182 Mohamed Safwat to make his grand slam debut.

“I was warming up and my coach said ‘hey look’ and we saw up on the board that I was playing a different opponent,” 27-year-old Dimitrov, a former Wimbledon semifinalist, said after his 6-1 6-4 7-6 (7/1) win. “I didn’t expect that.” Safwat, 27, had lost in the final round of qualifying in what was his eighth futile attempt to make the main draw of the majors.

But Safwat, one of eight lucky losers in the men’s draw, overcame blisters on his right hand to put up a solid challenge in the third set before Dimitrov raced through the tiebreaker.

“I only heard I was playing an hour before the match,” Safwat said.

“I dealt with it as best I could. I had never set foot on that court before.”

Seven-time major winner Williams suffered back-to-back opening-round exits at the slams for the first time in her 21-year career.

The ninth-seeded, 37-year-old American slumped to a 6-4 7-5 defeat to China’s world No 91 Wang Qiang, a player she knocked out in Paris last year. Williams was in no mood for lengthy explanations after her loss.

“Nobody plans for this,” she said. Kyrgios was forced to withdraw after failing to recover from an elbow injury, saying a potential five sets on clay was too risky.

The 23-year-old was seeded 21 and was due to play Bernard Tomic in the first round.

Kyrgios’s withdrawal meant eight places in the first round were opened up to lucky losers.

Defending champion Nadal, who starts his campaign for an 11th Roland Garros title today, will also face a lucky loser.

Italy’s world No 130 Simone Bolelli moved into the draw after Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov pulled out with a wrist injury.

Women’s fourth seed Elina Svitolina, a quarterfinalist in Paris in 2015 and last year, overcame a first-set 1-5 deficit to see off Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5 6-3.

Other early winners yesterday included Estonian 25th seed Anett Kontaveit, who downed Madison Brengle of the United States 6-1 4-6 6-2.

US Open champion Sloane Stephens, the 10th seed, needed just 49 minutes to breeze past Arantxa Rus 6-2 6-0.